Bottom Line:
Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 "hand motion" cues.The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted.Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results.

ABSTRACTThe facial expressions and body postures of dogs can give helpful information about their moods and emotional states. People can more effectively obedience train their dogs if we can identify the mannerisms associated with learning in dogs. The aim of this study was to clarify the dog's body language during operant conditioning to predict achievement in the test that followed by measuring the duration of behaviors. Forty-six untrained dogs (17 males and 26 females) of various breeds were used. Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 "hand motion" cues. The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted. The duration of the dog's behavior, focusing on the dog's eyes, mouth, ears, tail and tail-wagging, was recorded during the operant conditioning sessions before the test. Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results. It is concluded that dogs' body language during operant conditioning was related to their success rate.

animals-04-00045-f002: Categories of mouth (M) expressions in dogs during their training.

Mentions:
We conducted pre-experiments on 10 other dogs before this main experiment. This pre-experiment was carried out for three days with training schedules that were exactly the same as the main experiment. The sessions were recorded using a digital video camera (DCR-HC90, Sony, Japan). We categorized the body language of the dogs using the videos and many references [12,40,41,42,43]. Body languages were frequently observed in the videos and were given simple classifications that a dog owner could recognize. Eyes (Ey) and Ears (Ea) were divided into three categories based on their appearance. In addition, the types of ears were broadly classified into drop ear and prick ear. Mouth (M) appearance was divided into five categories. The Tail (T) category recorded tail height from the lowest to highest position. Tail-Wagging (TW) was also classified based on the visual records. The behavioral categories are shown in Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Table 3.

animals-04-00045-f002: Categories of mouth (M) expressions in dogs during their training.

Mentions:
We conducted pre-experiments on 10 other dogs before this main experiment. This pre-experiment was carried out for three days with training schedules that were exactly the same as the main experiment. The sessions were recorded using a digital video camera (DCR-HC90, Sony, Japan). We categorized the body language of the dogs using the videos and many references [12,40,41,42,43]. Body languages were frequently observed in the videos and were given simple classifications that a dog owner could recognize. Eyes (Ey) and Ears (Ea) were divided into three categories based on their appearance. In addition, the types of ears were broadly classified into drop ear and prick ear. Mouth (M) appearance was divided into five categories. The Tail (T) category recorded tail height from the lowest to highest position. Tail-Wagging (TW) was also classified based on the visual records. The behavioral categories are shown in Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Table 3.

Bottom Line:
Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 "hand motion" cues.The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted.Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results.

ABSTRACTThe facial expressions and body postures of dogs can give helpful information about their moods and emotional states. People can more effectively obedience train their dogs if we can identify the mannerisms associated with learning in dogs. The aim of this study was to clarify the dog's body language during operant conditioning to predict achievement in the test that followed by measuring the duration of behaviors. Forty-six untrained dogs (17 males and 26 females) of various breeds were used. Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 "hand motion" cues. The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted. The duration of the dog's behavior, focusing on the dog's eyes, mouth, ears, tail and tail-wagging, was recorded during the operant conditioning sessions before the test. Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results. It is concluded that dogs' body language during operant conditioning was related to their success rate.